How to Make a Decorative Stepping Stone Path for your Garden

A garden path is a fantastic feature – not only does it look great if done correctly, it’s also functional too, protecting your grass from being trampled to keep it looking lush and green. There are a hundred ways to make a garden path but my favourite is done with the use of stepping-stones.

Stepping stones bring out the inner child in everyone, inviting you to hop from one to the next – just be sure you don’t put them too far apart or you’ll be defeating the object of using them to avoid stepping on the grass!

We’d all love a gorgeous garden but in today’s tough times it’s probably not top of your list of things to splash out on. When you visit any world capital, gardens there for public viewing are overflowing with beauty, but you can see how much they cost just by looking!

Nothing looks better than a path of decorative stepping-stones winding their way down your garden, but if you don’t have the cash to fork out for some expensive stones from your local garden centre, here’s how to make them yourself…

What You’ll Need

Pebbles, coloured stones and anything else you’d like to use to decorate them!

Step 1

Mix the cement up according to the instructions on the bag.

Step 2

Pour a thin (around 1 inch) layer of the mixture into the bucket and smooth off if needed.

Step 3

Place a sheet of steel mesh over the mixture – it should cover most of the surface area so you may need to use wire cutters to chop it to the right shape and size.

Step 4

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Pour a second layer over the mesh, the same depth as your first layer was so that the wire mesh sits in the middle, then smooth off the top.

Step 5

Now comes the fun part!

Get your pebbles and stones and have fun decorating your stepping stone, pressing each one into the cement so that it will be securely held in place when it dries. Here are some ideas on how to decorate your stepping-stones:

Leave the cement to set overnight then carefully remove your new stepping stone from the bucket. Repeat the process until you have enough stones for the length of path you’d like to have. To get things done quicker, you could also buy a few plastic buckets and make multiple stones at the same time.

Step 7

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Place the stone where you would like it to go on your lawn; then cut around the edge with an old knife.

Step 8

Remove the stone and the circle of grass that you have just cut around – you now have a perfectly sized gap that you can slot the stone into. Repeat for each one and viola, your decorative stepping stone path is complete!

Can you think of any other great ways to decorate your stepping stones? I’d love to hear them!